My Dying Bride

[Podgie]

I was about to post this massive response to M_DeX in the 'Last album you listened to' thread but I thought nah, it's far too long. So I created a thread on the topic... of one of my favourite bands, My Dying Bride.

I know there will be a lot of people who dislike them around these parts, and that's fine, but I'm just testing the water to see if we have anyone else interested in them. And if so? Now they have a place to discuss them. Or the thread could just die, which is more likely...

Anyway!

Nice to see another person listening to My Dying Bride around here though, I think the new album is pretty ace. Especially the first song, Kneel Till Doomsday. It's kind of the ultimate My Dying Bride song...

It was my first MDB record actually I am looking forward to listening to more though!

Oh, cool! Sweet, yeah. In that case, I'll give you a little run down of their albums, because they have a lot and personally, I struggle to know where to start when checking a band out who have more than 4-5 albums!

As the Flower Withers (1992) - Definitely their heaviest, most 'deathy' album. 'Vast Choirs' is particularly reminiscent of Morbid Angel, I think.

Turn Loose the Swans (1993) - Still a lot of 'deathy' influences present, but a whole lot slower and more refined than the first album. Stand out tracks include 'The Songless Bird' and 'The Crown of Sympathy'

The Angel and the Dark River (1995) - This album marked the start of the band going soft. Don't take that the wrong way though, the album is fantastic. 'A Sea to Suffer In' is heavy as hell and will get you headbanging. Features the classic My Dying Bride song 'The Cry of Mankind'.

Like Gods of the Sun (1996) - Following in from the previous album this has an even more romantic feel to it. Not very many growls on this one... Features the beautiful 'For My Fallen Angel' as well as stand out tracks 'A Kiss to Remember' and 'For You'.

34.788%... Complete (1998) - What can I say about this one? Many different influences can be heard on this album. It's the record that divides My Dying Bride fans. Stand out tracks? 'Apocalypse Woman'!!!

The Light at the End of the World (1999) - Back to the doom. A very gloomy album. Long songs, lots of atmosphere. Stand out track has to be the awesome 'She is The Dark' - one of my very favourite My Dying Bride songs.

The Dreadful Hours (2001) - My favourite My Dying Bride album. It has the deathy moments, it has the doom, it has the atmosphere, it has everything you could ever want from a My Dying Bride album. It has a firm place in my top 10 albums of all time. Tears have been shed listening to this... Stand out tracks 'The Dreadful Hours', 'The Raven and the Rose' and 'My Hope, the Destroyer'

Songs of Darkness, Words of Light (2004) - This is a good 'un. Really heavy, lots of growls. It's got that gothic thing going for it, but man is it spiteful and plain evil sounding at times... Stand out tracks, 'The Wreckage of My Flesh' and 'Catherine Blake'.

A Line of Deathless Kings (2006) - Again, a pretty heavy, well produced monster is this one. Doomy, with a lot of that signature My Dying Bride romantic/tragic atmosphere. Stand out tracks, 'To Remain Tombless' and ' Deeper Down'.

For Lies I Sire (2009) - I'll be honest, I didn't really like this album at first, I thought it was very weak. But it grew on me and I love it now. Very refined, doomy, not too heavy, lots of clean vocals. I'll listen to this when I don't necessarily want to listen to metal, but I still want to listen to metal (if you know what I mean!). Or if you've just broke up with your girl, maybe Stand out tracks, 'My Body, a Funeral' and 'Fall with Me'.

And you've heard the new one of course, so yeah!

It's all very brief and off the top of my head, and I didn't include their EPs and live albums etc, but I hope you find it helpful anyway. And if not? It had fun writing it all.

 

[Snyde]

Podgie, you maniac. Whenever people make gigantic posts directed to me I almost feel obligated to write a gigantic reply as well!

I struggle to know where to start when checking a band out who have more than 4-5 albums!

I completely agree with you on this. I sometimes get kinda scared to check out bands with long as fuck discographies. When I do, I either start with the first album or the most well known/best rated one.

Thanks for the recomendations man, I'm going to give these a try and I shall report back.

 

[Podgie]

Podgie, you maniac. Whenever people make gigantic posts directed to me I almost feel obligated to write a gigantic reply as well!

Oh, no need to make it gigantic. But if you hadn't of acknowledged me I would have been sad.

Give what you think sounds good a go anyway, of course those little descriptions are brief and off the top of my head. But if you liked A Map of All Our Failures to a certain extent then I'm sure you'll find you like some of their other stuff too. Probably more so!

 

[Snyde]

Well, I started my journey through their discography and I went straight for the best:

The Dreadful Hours (2001) - My favourite My Dying Bride album. It has the deathy moments, it has the doom, it has the atmosphere, it has everything you could ever want from a My Dying Bride album. It has a firm place in my top 10 albums of all time. Tears have been shed listening to this... Stand out tracks 'The Dreadful Hours', 'The Raven and the Rose' and 'My Hope, the Destroyer'

And wow, was I not dissapointed. The opener is just friggin excellent and my personal favorite off the whole album. Every song does a really good job retaining the doomy sound and there's some really good acoustic work sprinkled throughout the whole thing. I got to admit, I like the growling vocals over the singing but there's a good dynamic between them.

My only gripe with it is that some of the songs are overly long, especially the last one which makes the album a tough to listen to several times over.

Going off on a tangent now, I'm really bad at listening to long albums without losing interest somewhere towards the end. 1 hour is generally my threshold and I'd argue that the perfect lenght for an album is 45-50 minutes. That's partly how I have such a hard time listening to a Dream Theater album. They bore me to fucking tears... However, the longest album I fully enjoy is probably Sagas by Equilibrium which is a nearly 1h20mins long folk metal journey.

 

[Podgie]

Really glad to hear you enjoyed The Dreadful Hours man. It was the album which introduced me to the band and to this day remains my favourite. I agree about the title track too, what a way to start an album! I know it's kind of cliché but the rain at the beginning works perfectly to set the damp, dismal tone for the rest of the album. Got to agree with you about Aaron's growls on the album too, definitely among his best. (Though if you listen to 'She is The Dark' from The Light at the End of the World you'll hear his best, in my opinion)

Have you listened to any more yet?